Monday, May 22, 2006

GAM3R 7H30RY

I'm assuming this site just launched, because the forums are sparse, but it's a million times more interesting than other "academic" sites out there. GAM3R 7H30RY has a focus on the more critical theory behind games and the way people play them. it's a little deep for me in some places, but i dig the intentions. here is a example of my first post on their forums. if you listen to the podcast, you probably know i don't really talk like this, my brain was chugging after writing this. (the game in question is Katamari Damacy, i spent a few hours over the weekend playing and have the memory fresh in my head.)

there is a underlying theme in the game, one of quiet, hidden terror. although the game masks the act of voracious consumption with music and quaint, fluffy images; despair is the final emotion that rises to the top when those final seconds are reached, when the haunting call of the sirens send the prince into a final, frenzied panic to get [i]just-one-more-item[/i]. and to begin again? you must always begin again, forever, with no hope, real or imagined, to satisfy your desire to consume EVERYTHING. when the end is reached, in the final stage, you are offered a chance to perform for the cosmos with no time limit. that brings the endgame gambit to a surreal conclusion; a metaphysical prison with nothing to consume........a wandering prince, condemmed to travel the earth for something to pick up, eternally...........

i think i'm going to write a dissection on the themes of prey, predator and consumer dysfunction in the pursuit of sweetmeats and neverending hunger in the seminal NES game, Chubby Cherub.